



\ 



65th Congress \ 
1st Session J 



SENATE 



f Document 
\ No. 118 



The Mobilizing of America 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE PARK VIEW COMMUNITY 

CELEBRATION, AT WASHINGTON, D. C. 

ON JULY 4, 1917 



BY 

HON. ROBERT L. OWEN 

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM OKLAHOMA 



f 



PRESENTED BY MR. SHEPPARD 

September 20, 1917.— Referred to the Committee on Printing 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1917 






SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 142. 

Reported by Mr. Fletcher. 

In the Senate of the United States, 

October 5, 1917. 
Resolved, That the manuscript submitted by the Senator from 
Texas (Mr. Sheppard) on September 20, 1917, entitled ''The Mobihz- 
ing of America," an address dehvered by Hon. Robert L. Owen, 
United States Senator from Oklahoma, at the Park View community 
celebration, Washington, D. C, July 4, 1917, to be printed as a 
Senate Document. 
Attest: 



2 



James M. Baker, Secretary. 



D, Of D. 
OCT 15 1917 






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^ 



THE MOBILIZING OF AMERICA. 



By Hon. Robert L. Owen, United States Senator from Oklahoma. 

In other years the Fourth of July observance has been needed to 
call our minds up from our private tasks to the high thought of the 
Nation's ideals. But now, when these ideals have come to a final 
death grapple with autocracy to protect the liberty of the Vforld, 
there is no need of a celebration to remind us. The best use of this 
great day will be to think now practically and earnestly what we 
shall do in the face of our stupendous problem. 

Recently a call was sent out to all the men and women of poetic 
impulse in America asking for a fitting expression of our national 
sentiment. To this call more than 4,000 made answer. The poem 
among all these adjudged the worthiest expression of our deep and 
common feeling has just been published, it was written by Daniel 
M. Henderson, and it is entitled ''The Road to France." These are 
some of its lines : 

Thank God, our liberating lance 
Goes flaming on the way to France ! 

To France — with every race and breed . 
That hates Oppression's brutal creed ! 

At last, thank God ! At last, we see 
There is no tribal liberty ! 

The soul that led oiu- fathers west 
Turns back to free the world's opprest. 

See, with what hearts we now advance 
To France ! 

Now, how does it happen that the best expression of the feeling of 
America to-day is contained in a poem which turns our thought to 
France ? 

It is not merely because of our debt to the French people for aid to 
us in the dark days of our own Revolution. It is not merely because, 
among all the nations of the globe, France has longest and most truly 
been our fellow in democracy. And it is not merely because of the 
heroism that French soldiers have shown and are showing to-day on 
the battle field. The explanation lies deeper. It is in the fact that, 
more than any other nation, France has attained a unity of consecra- 
tion, a unity of participation, in this war. In France, not the soldiers 
only, not the statesmen only, but the people — every man, woman, 
and child — ^have come into vital and effective union for the common 
cause. 

How has this been attained ? And bow is it maintained ? 

Every week there goes from the central agency of Government at 
Paris, through the Ministry of Education, a communication — the 

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4 THE MOBILIZING OF AMERICA. 

Bulletin Administratif — to each, public schoolhouse throughout all 
France. It carries the roll of the week's exceptional heroes who have 
come forth from French neighborhoods and been revealed in battle 
at the front. It carries the Government's report upon the conduct 
of the war and the Government's appeals or advice regarding the 
nation's needs. It goes to the servant in each neighborhood house; 
to the teacher, who has become more than a teacher, who has become . 

the community secretary, and through this local official, who is the j 

living medium between the nation and the neighborhood, it reaches ' 

not merely the children as they gather in the schoolhouse during the 
day, but the men and women as in the evening they assemble there. 

There are the daily news flashes there as here. There is the 
daily press. But it is by this weekly communication of the national 
Government direct to every community in France; and by this 
weekly assembly of- all the people at their common schoolhouses to 
receive, discuss, and act upon this thoroughly trustworthy and 
official information furnished directly to them by their Government, 
that the French people are mobilized and their actual unity of thought 
and courage and practical effort is attained. 

Is there a demand for special effort to increase and conserve the 
food supply? Here is the means of placing the matter directly 
before all the people— not individually, one by one, but assembled 
together where discussion may be had and plans of effective coopera- 
tion formed through common conference. Is there a special call 
for Red Cross service? This bulletin brings that caU home to aU 
men and all women gathering as neighbors and united so as best to 
meet that need. Is there required the issuing of a new Government 
loan? Through their own agency of communication the people 
learn the facts and, assembled in the building that stands to them 
as the schoolhouse is to us — the place of sincerest devotion — they 
respond. Or is there an inspiring event, or a great word spoken, 
the report of which will kindle and renew the common enthusiasm, 
the common zeal? This bulletin sent directly from the national 
Government to the people as they gather in the schoolhouses con- 
veys the inspiring message. So, for example, the text of President 
Wilson's speech asking for a declaration of war, and interpreting 
America's position, was received in every public schoolhouse in 
France, there to be read, considered, implanted by discussion in the 
minds and souls of the citizens as the)^ gathered in these headquarters 
or neighborhood assembly, which have become the centers of a 
nation mobilized. 

From England also comes the news that the War Savings Associa- 
tion is finding the machinery of the common schools the most effective 
agency for its work of reaching all the people, and the administration 
of food control is finding here the channel of its most efficient service. 
Italy, too, so far as its public school system is developed, is making 
the discovery that the mechanism of the children's instruction is 
the ready and adequate equipment for the defense organization of 
the whole people. 1 1 

In Russia the public-school system is only now in process of estab- j ] 

lishment. But the plans which aim to equip that great land with 
common schools within 10 years' time include not only provision 
for the instruction of children but also for the use of this equipment 
by adults. The nation that has learned first-hand neighborhood 



THE MOBILIZIl^G OF AMEBICA. 5 

cooperation in the mir and the zemstvo will not be slow in developing 
the service of its school system as the agency of nation-wide organiza- 
tion of the people. 

But no other nation has perfected this system of actual civic 
mobilization through the use of the common-school machinery as 
effectively as France; and no other nation has achieved the unity of 
spirit and effort, the freedom from duplication and wasted energy, 
which has been realized in France. 

Now we turn our thoughts home to America. 

Here, indeed, we find the recognition of the need of unity, the 
need to ''speak, act, and serve together" in cooperation as soldiers 
of the common good. The perception of this need appears in every 
speech the President has uttered and in the words of every thought- 
ful student of our situation. We see that, important as are the 
mechanical problems of devising engines of destruction that shall be 
superior to those of our enemy; important as are the problems of 
equipment and organization of the men we send to the battle line, 
the first, the most vital and comprehensive of all our problems is 
to bring our 100,000,000 membership into a unity of understand- 
ing and effective cooperation for the common cause such as the 
38,000,000 of French people have attained. 

How shall this be accomplished ? 

In the last few weeks we have seen the issuance of a call for sub- 
scriptions to the first Government loan required by the war. Through 
what agency was this need explained to the people? It was pre- 
sented, scarcely explained, by means of newspapers, billboards, and 
other advertising, precisely as though it were a private commercial 
interest's appeal and not the solemn call of this great Nation for the 
cooperation of its membership. Newspapers, of course, are indis- 
pensable, but are newspapers or billboards instrumentalities whereby 
the common-council assembly and actual unity of the people may be 
secured ? We have seen the creation of the committee on food 
a,dministration or control. What is its medium for reaching the 
people? It has recently sent a letter out tlu-ough the churches. 
None will deny that the cooperation of all the churches is to be greatly 
desired; but are churches the best institutions of common assembly, 
of Protestants, Catholics, Jew, and Gaehc? Are they not rather 
institutions wliich reach class sections and represent only sectarian 
divisions of the people ? 

We have seen the assembling of the national leaders of the Red 
Cross service. Here again the channels for securing the cooperation 
of the people are duplicated and complicated. 

Under the War Department a Commission on Training Camp 
Activities has been created. Its twofold object is to secure adequate 
provision for the leisure of the recruits in the training camps and to 
promote or develop wholesome leisure opportunities for the sake of 
these young men in the communities outside of but near these 
training camps. But for this, not merely charitable and private 
agencies are needed, but a definite public instrumentality. 

The newspapers, the churches, and other private agencies have 
their noble functions to perform. Their cooperation is needed for 
the common cause and will be generously, patriotically given. But 
no one of these private institutions, nor all of them together, can 
supply the official, direct, trustworthy and central channel of con- 



b ■ THE MOBILIZING OF AMEEICA. 

tact and communication between the National Government and 
the people of the United States that is needed for the present crisis. 

There must be, for the effective mobilizing of our citizens, first, 
an institution in each and every local community which represents 
no private interest, but the common responsibility of Americans 
as Americans, a building capable of being used as the af)propriate 
rallying point of men and women regularly assembling to "speak, 
act, and serve together" as citizens, meeting upon equal, common 
ground; and, second, a trustworthy and official agency at Washington 
where through all matters of supreme and vital importance to the 
citizens, as the Nation's sovereign and responsible membership, 
may be prepared in weekly bulletins and regularly transmitted. 

Is there such an institution available in each American neigh- 
borhood, fitted to serve as a common assembly place of all our 
citizens ? 

To ask the question is to answer it, and the answer is the same as 
that which France has found — the public school. 

Is this equipment of community buildings capable of being used 
for the -nation-wide civic mobilization, the unified assembly, of the 
people which the time demands ? 

Except in the cities, throughout all the States, the school buildings 
have for 50 years been used for the regular and rightful assembly of 
the adult citizenship in district school meetings. And in one city 
after another all across this continent the awakened need of a corrimon 
meeting place where differences might be put aside and citizenship 
expressed has led to the opening of these buildings for the use of all 
the people. 

A halt dozen years ago the man upon whom America now so largely 
depends — Woodrow Wilson — ^saw and declared the readiness of these 
houses of the people for just this service. Pointing to the common 
schools, that stand in every neighborhood waiting to be used, he said : 

They are public buildings. They are conveniently distributed. They belong to 
the communities. They furnish ideal places in which to assemble and discuss public 
affairs. They are just what we need. 

And of the nation-wide assembly to fulfill the common service 
of this equipment for organized democracy, he said: 

What I see in this movement is the recovery of the constructive and creative genius 
of the American people. 

Sfince that time provision has been made until to-day upon the 
statute books of 30 States may be found legislation specifically 
intended to make the schoolhouses available for adult assembly and 
all the larger service of which this equipment is capable. The States 
are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, 
Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,. 
Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, 
North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsyl- 
vania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wash- 
ington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. 

In cities, towns, and rural communities, the necessary public funds 
have been or are bemg appropriated, and the necessary service em- 
ployed to make possible, and develop, this community use of the 
available public-school assembly rooms. And in this time of stress, 
there has been the special hastening of this movement by the States 



THE MOBILIZING OF AMERICA. 7 

as a practical measure of preparedness and defense. For example, 
within the last two days New York celebrated the inauguration of 
the adult civic use of the public-school equipment throughout the 
State under what is called "the Americanization forum law" which 
requires boards of school trustees to provide for the use of the schools 
wherein newcomers and native born alike may vitalize, through 
common-council assembly, their sense of responsibility for, and mem- 
bership in, America. 

What has been happening here in the District of Columbia, and 
particularly in this community of Park View, where you have just 
elected a community secretary to serve your common assembly in 
the schoolhouse is typical of what is happening everywhere through- 
out the United States. These buildings are being used for patriotic 
meetings, as very generally they were used for the military registra- 
tion of June 5, and will be used for the food-conservation registra- 
tion of July 15 for Red Cross work, and for the manifold cooperations 
of communities in the common cause. 

The machinery of the people's mobilization is ready. And the 
people have begun its larger appropriate use as the equipment of com- 
mon assembly. Moreover, here as in France, the school principals 
and teachers are imbued with the patriotic devotion which means 
that they are ready to serve as the French principals and teachers are 
serving for the war-time assembly of the people wherever they may 
be called upon. 

All that is needed to accomplish the unifying of the national mind 
and spirit, and the effective organizing of the national cooperation to 
serve the common cause, is the establishment here at the center of 
Government of a central agency which will formulate and send the 
national report each week to the people as they gather in the school- 
houses throughout America, precisely as is being done so effectively 
in France. 

Congressman M. Clyde Kelly has introduced in the House, and 
I have introduced in the Senate a bill to create the United States War 
Information Commission to consist of the Secretaries of the several 
executive departments, and a civilian chairman to be appointed by 
and to receive his orders from the President, a commission whose 
function it will be to serve as a genuine and real public information 
agency. That is, an agency for furnishing information not merely 
to officeholders, and not merely to the press, but directly to the 
people. 

Wherever throughout the United States the citizens gather in the 
buUdings which are the natural headquarters of democracy to exer- 
cise the common right and to fulfill the present imperative duty of 
assembly to consult for the common good, for efforts to increase and 
conserve the food supply, for cooperative endeavor to provide hospi- 
tal or other supplies for the American Red Cross service, for extend- 
ing the opportunity for popular subscriptions to Government loans, 
for activities intended to enhance the vigor and health of the people 
by means of physical training and wholesome recreation, or for other 
purposes designed to support and strengthen the Nation in time of 
war, there, upon application of the person designated by the people 
of the local community to serve as their agent, the Government's 
commission, will under this plan, send each week its official bulletin 
or report upon the progress of the cause of democracy in the world 



8 



THE MOBILIZING OF AMEEICA. 



struggle and the cooperation required of the people to assure Amer- 
ica's success. 

On this day, 141 years ago, the immortal declaration was signed. 
The most important words in that great document are not its state- 
ment of the reasonableness of democracy, are not its proofs of the 
viciousness and absurdity of one-man rule, are not even its announce- 
ment that henceforth the subjection of Americans to any other nation 
was ended. The most important words in that mighty declaration 
were those with which it closed, and without which what precedes 
would have had no significance: 

For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine 
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred 
honor. 

It was because the heartfelt union of the people, symbolized in that 
mutual pledging of the 56 signers of the declaration was a reality, 
because the people themselves were actually united on common 
ground in the common interest — that the struggle for liberty upon 
this continent was won. 

As we make the schoolhouses serve as our common assembly place, 
to unify and consohdate our people, as the town halls served the 
assembly of our fathers, we are not only worthily emulating their 
noble example and making democracy invincible in America, but 
we are establishing the best means of fellowship with citizens in other 
democracies; we are finding the way to the first-hand, direct, effective, 
organization of humanity for the establishment of democracy through- 
out the world. 



o 



Gaylord Bros. 
Makers 

Syracuse. N, V. 
NT. M. 21. IMS 



